If you have more than 14 employees, you must ensure that your company complies with the American With Disabilities Act. Written to ensure disabled workers don't experience discrimination, four federal agencies -- The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Department of Transportation, the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice -- oversee enforcement of the Act.

Accommodation

You must make "reasonable accommodation" for applicants and employees with a disability. Determining factors include the cost and nature of the accommodation, your business's financial resources and any impact on your operations while making the accommodations. Examples of undue hardship include lowering production standards to accommodate the employee, providing personal items such as eyeglasses or prosthetic limbs and tolerating conduct violations that are unacceptable in an employee without a disability. Providing a temporary reassignment of the employee, adjusting work schedules and giving a disabled employee extended time off because of the disability are not reasons you can terminate an employee.

Hiring Practices

If you know about the disability when accepting an application, you can ask if the applicant requires reasonable accommodation to perform the job. However, your knowledge must come from the applicant; you cannot rely on information from a third party. You can explain the hiring process and ask applicants if they need reasonable accommodation to complete it. If you make a conditional offer of employment, you can ask applicants if they require reasonable accommodation to perform the job as long as you ask the same questions of all applicants. Even if you think that the applicant can't perform the job, you must provide reasonable accommodation.

Benefits

Disabled individuals have the right to the same benefits as other employees. You can't pay disabled employees less than other employees for performing the same work. If you have training sessions for your employees, you must ensure that disabled employees can take advantage of the presented materials. For example, as long as it doesn't present an undue hardship, blind employees must receive handouts in Braille, and, if requested, you must provide a sign language interpreter for meetings. The law requires that employers provide equal access to any company-provided benefit, including company outings, employee lounges, employee services and credit unions.

Considerations

The ADA doesn't apply only to your employees; it also applies to your customers. If your business is open to the public, you must make reasonable accommodations for your customers with disabilities. While installing an elevator isn't a reasonable accommodation in most cases, installing safety bars in the bathroom and moving furniture to create wheelchair space is reasonable. The government provides tax incentives to businesses seeking to comply with ADA requirements. Fines apply only when a business shows total disregard for the regulations. According to the DOJ, a business can make the majority of accommodations at no cost or for less than $1,000.